This invention relates generally to improvements in water purification systems and equipment of the reverse osmosis type. More particularly, this invention relates to an improved purification system having a header manifold of simplified unitary construction for receiving and supporting system components in a compact package or assembly.
Reverse osmosis water purification systems are generally well-known in the art for producing a purified water supply used for drinking, cooking, etc. Such purification systems commonly include a reverse osmosis unit having a reverse osmosis filter or membrane which, in the presence of appropriate flow and pressure conditions, separates an incoming tap or feed water supply into the purified water supply and a relatively impure or reject water supply. In particular, the membrane functions to remove particulate matter and a wide range of dissolved solids and other contaminants from a portion of the tap water to produce the purified water supply, and to concentrate those contaminants within the remainder of the tap water thereby producing the reject supply, sometimes referred to as brine, for disposal via a suitable drain. The purified water supply is normally collected for storage at a convenient location within a suitable reservoir, and for ready dispensing through a faucet valve or the like, when desired. In this regard, available reverse osmosis systems have utilized compressed air to deliver purified water from the reservoir as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,873. Alternately, such systems have been designed to use the pressure of the tap water supply to deliver purified water from the reservoir as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,776,952.
In many reverse osmosis purification systems, the reverse osmosis membrane is used in combination with additional filtration media to provide improved removal of contaminants from the resultant purified water supply. In this regard, reverse osmosis systems are known to include filtration media disposed upstream of the reverse osmosis membrane, wherein this upstream or "prefilter" media may comprise a fibrous material and/or carbon media to remove particulate as well as selected contaminants which might otherwise be harmful to the reverse osmosis membrane. In addition, purification systems are known with filtration media disposed downstream of the reverse osmosis membrane to provide a final or "post filter" step before delivery of the purified water to a faucet valve or other point of use.
While the use of prefilter and post filter stages is generally desirable in a typical reverse osmosis purification system, such filter stages inherently increase the overall complexity and cost of the purification system by requiring appropriate housings to contain the filtration media and further requiring associated plumbing connections to obtain the desired water flow therethrough. As a result, the purification system frequently includes a relatively large number of system components which can be difficult and confusing to assemble for proper operation while avoiding water leaks at the requisite large number of plumbing connections. Moreover, after assembly, the system components are typically located in a somewhat disorganized manner beneath a kitchen sink or the like and contained within a confined cabinet space. Accordingly, post-assembly access to and identification of the system components can be difficult and confusing, particularly with respect to periodic replacement of the reverse osmosis membrane and the filtration media. Efforts to overcome these problems by connecting multiple system components to a common manifold have required multiple manifold pieces and/or complex water flow paths therein such that the manifold structures have also been relatively complicated and costly.
There exists, therefore, a significant need for improvements in reverse osmosis purification systems, particularly with respect to providing a simplified manifold of unitary construction for integrating the system components into a compact and organized package adapted for facilitated initial assembly, as well as facilitated subsequent access to reverse osmosis and associated filtration media for replacement purposes. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages.